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Burger King Digitally-Raped My Face

Published on Aug 5, 2014

Burger King found my photo online from a series I did of various facial expressions and contortion poses, and with no due regard to me as a person, profited off reducing me to an orifice for their penis sludge; publicly humiliating me in the process. It was shown online as well as on bus stops and the walls and place mats of their restaurant.

When asked for comment from the press Burger King claimed the campaign went down well, however after some research I discovered The Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (where it was released) received several complaints and the campaign had to be prematurely removed.

This is a top International food chain the world is watching that has a code of ethics they're required to adhere to for that reason by law but did not in how they went about using my image.Now due to the coverage its received (Time Magazine's Top Ten Tasteless Ads, Business Insider, Buzzfeed, Gawker, Psychology Today to name a few) it's part of the public domain. Just recently it was the topic of discussion in a media studies class of 500 students at the University of Toronto - where I live... and posted to the class Facebook discussion page.

Friends, family, coworkers, prospective employers who saw it assume I was a willing player. Those offended by it don't know the extent of what's wrong with the ad; that I didn't know about this being done to my image, let alone agree to or pose for the scenario.

Why not hire a model to pose with the sandwich?

There is something VERY wrong with the fact that they felt entitled to do that to my face without signing a contract with me.

I believe in sexual expression in art and the media; it's beautiful and necessary for a healthy society but IT MUST BE CONSENSUAL otherwise it's RAPE.